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Associated Press

Hamas on Monday released two elderly Israeli women held hostage in Gaza as the United States expressed increasing concern that the escalating Israel-Gaza war will spark a wider conflict in the region, including attacks on American troops.
The death toll in Gaza rose rapidly as Israel ramped up air strikes that flattened buildings in what it said was preparation for an eventual ground assault.
The United States advised Israel to delay the expected invasion to allow time to negotiate the release of more hostages taken by Hamas during its brutal incursion two weeks ago.
A third small aid convoy from Egypt entered Gaza, where the population of 2.3 million has been running out of food, water and medicine under Israel’s sealed border.

With Israel still barring entry of fuel, the UN said its distribution of aid would grind to a halt within days when it can no longer fuel its trucks.
Gaza hospitals flooded by a constant stream of wounded are struggling to keep generators running to power lifesaving medical equipment and incubators for premature babies.
Hostage talks may delay Gaza ground war, but won’t stop it
The two freed hostages, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper, were taken out of Gaza at the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were put into ambulances, according to footage shown on Egyptian TV.
The two women, along with their husbands, were snatched from their homes in the kibbutz of Nir Oz near the Gaza border during Hamas’ October 7 rampage into southern Israeli communities. Their husbands, ages 83 and 84, were not released.
“While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those – some 200 innocent people – who remain hostages in Gaza,” Lifshitz’ daughter, Sharone Lifschitz, said in a statement.
Lifschitz, an artist and academic in London who uses a different spelling for her name, told reporters last week that her parents were peace activists, and her father would drive to the Gaza border to take Palestinians to east Jerusalem for medical treatment.
Kindness, she said last week, could somehow save them.
“I grew up, you know, with all these Holocaust stories about how all my uncles’ lives were saved because” of acts of kindness, she said.

“Do I want that to be the story here?” she asked. “Yeah.”
Hamas apparently received nothing in exchange for the release of the two hostages, who were freed days after an American woman and her teenage daughter.
“We decided to release them for humanitarian and poor health grounds,” Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas militant group, said on Telegram.
Hamas and other militants in Gaza are believed to have taken roughly 220 people, including an unconfirmed number of foreigners and dual citizens.
Hamas seeks release of Palestinians, calls non-Israeli hostages ‘guests’
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas. Iranian-backed fighters around the region are warning of possible escalation, including the targeting of US forces deployed in the Middle East, if a ground offensive is launched in Gaza.
The US has told Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and other groups not to join the fight. Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily across the Israel-Lebanon border, and Israeli warplanes have struck targets in the occupied West Bank, Syria and Lebanon in recent days.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there has been an uptick in rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed militias on US troops in Iraq and Syria, and the US was “deeply concerned about the possibility for any significant escalation” in the coming days.

He said US officials were having “active conversations” with Israeli counterparts about the potential ramifications of escalated military action.
The US advised Israeli officials that delaying a ground offensive would give Washington more time to work with regional mediators on the release of more hostages, according to a US official.
Israeli tanks and ground forces have been massed at the Gaza border, and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops there Monday to keep preparing for an offensive “because it will come”. He said it will be a combined offensive from air, land and sea, but he did not give a time frame.
A ground offensive is likely to dramatically increase casualties in what is already the deadliest by far of five wars fought between Israel and Hamas since the militant group took power in Gaza in 2007.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed – mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack. At least 222 people were captured and dragged back to Gaza, including foreigners, the military said Monday, updating a previous figure.
More than 5,000 Palestinians, including some 2,000 minors and around 1,100 women, have been killed, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said Monday.


That includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week. The toll has climbed rapidly in recent days, with the ministry reporting 436 additional deaths in just the last 24 hours.
Israel said it struck 320 militant targets throughout Gaza over the last 24 hours. The military says it does not target civilians, and that Palestinian militants have fired over 7,000 rockets at Israel since the start of the war.
Israel carried out limited ground forays into Gaza. On Sunday, Hamas said it destroyed an Israeli tank and two armoured bulldozers inside Gaza. The Israeli military said a soldier was killed and three others were wounded by an anti-tank missile during a raid inside Gaza.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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Israel-Gaza war

Hamas frees 2 more Gaza hostages as US advises delaying ground war

Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper, who were held hostage by Hamas militants, being released. Photo: Al-Qassam Brigades, military wing of Hamas via Reuters

Israeli hostages Nurit Yitzhak and Yocheved Lifshitz arriving in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo: AFP

Yocheved Lifshitz, left, and Nurit Cooper, who were held as hostage. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum via AP

At least 222 people were captured on October 7 and dragged back to Gaza, including foreigners. Photo: AP

US push for release of hostages delays Israeli ground war, but won’t stop it

Photos of Israelis missing and held captive in Gaza, displayed on a wall in Tel Aviv. Photo: AP

US citizens Judith Raanan (right) and daughter Natalie Raanan speaking on the phone with US President Joe Biden following their release. Photo: US embassy in Jerusalem 

Israeli soldiers at a staging area near the Gaza border. Photo: Reuters

Israel-Gaza war: Hamas releases US hostages Judith and Natalie Raanan

Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie, US citizens who were taken as hostages by Hamas militants, walk while holding hands with Brigadier-General (Retired) Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for the captives and missing, after they were released. Photo: Government of Israel via Reuters

Members of the Jewish community in Evanston, Illinois, attend a prayer vigil for Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie on Thursday. Photo: AP

Natalie Raanan (left) and Judith Raanan speaking on the phone with US President Joe Biden on Friday. Photo: US embassy in Jerusalem/AFP

Judith Raanan (left) and her daughter Natalie are seen after Natalie’s recent high school graduation. Photo: Raanan Family via AP

Natalie Raanan and her father Uri. Photo: Raanan family via AP

The Israel-Gaza border on Saturday, with smoke ascending over the northern Gaza Strip following an Israeli strike. Photo: AFP

Israel strikes Gaza, Syria and West Bank as war against Hamas threatens to ignite other fronts

Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: dpa

Israel hostage crisis: Hamas seeks release of Palestinian prisoners, calls non-Israeli captives ‘guests’

A wall in Tel Aviv, Israel, plastered with images of Israeli hostages snatched by Hamas during the  October 7 attack. Photo: AFP

In 2011, Israel swapped hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to win the release of one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was held for five years. File photo: Reuters

News

World

Middle East

Hamas said it released Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85 for humanitarian reasons
US sources said the US had advised Israel to hold off on a ground assault in the Gaza Strip


Hamas said it had released Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Cooper 79, for humanitarian reasons. Their husbands were not released.


Israel

War and conflict

Hamas frees 2 more Gaza hostages as US advises delaying ground war

Hamas said it released Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85 for humanitarian reasons US sources said the US had advised Israel to hold off on a ground assault in the Gaza Strip

Hamas said it released Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85 for humanitarian reasons

US sources said the US had advised Israel to hold off on a ground assault in the Gaza Strip